I agree that the blame is definitely not on the parents. the older Maghrebin/Arab generation (these kids' parents) are in 99/100 cases extremely hard-working and friendly people, and i know most Muslim parents would not tolerate this kind of behavior. i just think that at that age, the influence of friends and media is much stronger than that of your parents, and when the parents are out working or studying most of the day, there's only so much time they have with these kids to try to instill good values in them.